Is the pressure on Premier League referees simply too great?

I’m not someone who gives referee’s a hard time. At least I hope I don’t.

Being a referee must be one of the hardest jobs in sport. You are loved by no one, appreciated by few and hated by most. You have a good game and make decisions as you see them, and you are 100 per cent correct, but a large percentage of the crowd are still going to hate you.

I respect referees for that reason.

But since coming into the Premier League, I have noticed that whereas the established teams appear to get all the luck with decisions, us newer, ‘smaller’ clubs like Cardiff City, don’t seem to get any.

But is it really luck or it something else?

I don’t want to imply it is intentional on the referees part, let me clarify that right away. But in this day and age with all the pressure referees are put under by the media, fans, managers and players, it must subconsciously cause issues. Lets take a perfect example from November 2013.

In the first 10 minutes of Cardiff City’s clash with Manchester United, Wayne Rooney kicked out at Jordon Mutch in an off the ball incident. There should have been no debate about it, it was a clear straight red card for violent conduct.

But the referee only booked Rooney, why? Can you imagine being in that referee’s position. With the speed it all happened, and with it happening off the ball, he probably thought he saw a kick out by Rooney. The key word being thought.

But it’s Rooney of Manchester United! What happens if I get this wrong? It’s the first 10 minutes of the match, I will be ripped to pieces by the media and United.

So he hedges his bets and books him.

Hypothetically, if Mutch had kicked out at Rooney, do you think the same issues would have been going through the referee’s mind? Of course not. He would be a lot more sure of what he had seen.

Again all subconscious, I’m not saying this was all done on purpose, but the pressures are different on referees to make decisions against bigger teams than less established teams.

This season, we have not had one penalty kick, not a single one. This is despite a very good shout at a crucial time against Everton last Saturday.

The pressure hasn’t been there on the referees to make a decision that goes against his gut instinct.

And that’s where the difference is. It’s not luck, it’s not big team versus little team bias, it’s the pressure of getting a decision wrong against a bigger team is more than getting a decision wrong against a smaller team. Unfortunate but true.